RHETORICAL STUDIES AND THE #METOO MOVEMENT A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in English By Erin Rebecca Torbett, B.A. Washington, DC March 21, 2019 Copyright 2019 by Erin Rebecca Torbett All Rights Reserved ii RHETORICAL STUDIES AND THE #METOO MOVEMENT Erin Rebecca Torbett, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Lori A. Merish, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes discourse from the social media platform Twitter during the #MeToo movement. This project utilizes feminist rhetorical theory as well as theories of rhetorical ecologies to gain an understanding of the value of Twitter, tweets, and a hashtag that defines a movement. A selection of tweets will be used to uncover the value of many different voices within this social movement. The language of the selected tweets is examined for several reasons: to understand the impact of this movement for sexual assault survivors, to apply rhectorical ecologies studies to the discourse of the #MeToo movement, and to analyze race and class intersectionalities within this movement. Ecological approaches to discourse studies offers a way to examine elements of a text, or tweet for the purpose of this study, within the context of a larger system. Therefore, through this lens we can avoid separating the tweets from their audience, writers, and the social platform, and focus on the interdependent and interrelated properties of the texts. In order to effectively complete this analysis, this thesis uses a series of tweets selected from celebrities and non-celebrities who used Twitter from the start of the campaign on October 15, 2017, to more recent tweets in 2018. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not be what it is today without the support of so many people in my life. I would like to thank my advisor, Lori Merish, and my second reader, Matthew Pavesich, for their continuous advice, support and encouragement during this project. To my English cohort, thank you for believing in this project and always reminding me of its importance. Thank you to my parents and sister for always being a phone call away to help me unwind from thesis work. Johnny and Frankie, my two kittens, thank you for being right by my side, mainly sleeping, as I wrote the majority of this thesis! To my partner, Bill, thank you for always believing in me and pushing me to be my very best. I am so grateful for all you have done to help me reach this milestone. And lastly, to every voice, those who have spoken out and those who haven’t, that has been part of the #MeToo movement, thank you for courage. Many thanks, Erin Torbett iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY ..............................................1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.2 A Brief History of Sexual Harassment and Activism ................................................3 1.3 Tweets as Literature ...................................................................................................6 1.4 Tweet Selection Methodology ...................................................................................8 1.5 Challenges of Selections ..........................................................................................13 CHAPTER 2: RHETORICAL ECOLOGIES OF THE #METOO MOVEMENT ...........16 2.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................16 2.2 The Tipping Point for the Social Turn .....................................................................20 2.3 Environment Influences on #MeToo .......................................................................23 2.4 Interdependence within #MeToo .............................................................................27 2.5 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................32 CHAPTER 3: RACE AND CLASS RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE #METOO CAMPAIGN ......................................................................................................................33 3.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................33 3.2 Becoming a Counter-Public .....................................................................................35 3.3 Power as Contingency of Agency ...........................................................................40 3.4 Representations of Black Women in the Media ......................................................44 3.5 The Strength of a Voice ...........................................................................................47 3.6 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................54 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................56 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................59 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Jann Arden’s Tweet ............................................................................................15 Figure 2. Cheryl Strayed’s Tweet ......................................................................................21 Figure 3. Wize Old Owl’s Tweet ......................................................................................23 Figure 4. Carini Gambarini’s Tweet ..................................................................................28 Figure 5. Louise McSharry’s Tweet ..................................................................................29 Figure 6. Alex Berg’s Tweet ..............................................................................................30 Figure 7. Mélanie Joly’s Tweet .........................................................................................31 Figure 8. Tiffany D. Jackson’s Tweet ................................................................................36 Figure 9. Deesha Dyer’s Tweet .........................................................................................37 Figure 10. Cathy Park Hong’s Tweet ................................................................................39 Figure 11. Crystal Marie Fleming’s Tweet ........................................................................41 Figure 12. Drew’s Tweet ...................................................................................................43 Figure 13. Bernice King’s Tweet .......................................................................................45 Figure 14. Ashleigh Shackelford’s Tweet .........................................................................46 Figure 15. Airea D. Matthews’ Tweet ...............................................................................48 Figure 16. Daily Kelela’s Tweet ........................................................................................50 Figure 17. Artful Sol’s Response to Indivisible Network’s Tweet ....................................51 Figure 18. NW Black Women’s Tweet..............................................................................53 Figure 19. Shruti Seth’s Tweet ..........................................................................................57 vi Chapter 1: Introduction and Methodology 1.1 Introduction Statistics show us the number of women who have experienced sexual violence. The National Statistics on Sexual Violence released a series of statistics: One out of four women will experience sexual assault or harassment in their lifetime. One in six women will experience attempted or completed rape at some point in their lives. The victim knows the perpetrator in eight out of ten rape cases.1 The phrase “cold, hard facts” comes to mind when reading those statistics. That’s all the stats invoke, however. Devastating as they may be, numbers communicate information in a seemingly distant fashion. After all, the women in your life could be the three in four who have not experienced sexual violence. The numbers do not provide any insight into the pain or experiences felt by women—the numbers tell you only that a significant proportion of the female population share similar experiences. While it can be easy to gloss over numbers, stories hold our attention, and can drive home women’s suffering. Numbers are abstract, distancing; stories can be movingly concrete. Women have been sharing their stories about sexual violence for a long time. On October 15, 2017, Alyssa Milano turned to Twitter asking her followers2 to reply with two words, “me too,” if they have ever experienced sexual assault or harassment. What followed was a surge of personal stories relating to this singular request. 1 “National Statistics on Sexual Violence,” Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, accessed February 26, 2019, https://endsexualviolencect.org/resources/get-the- facts/national-stats/. 2 Other Twitter users who follow the account that Alyssa Milano has on the website. 1 My thesis examines the discourse of tweets produced during the first year of the #MeToo movement. Please note, within this thesis I refer to both the #MeToo movement and the Me Too Movement™. When using “#MeToo” I am referring to the Twitter campaign and movement that went viral after October 2017, and when using the “Me Too Movement” I am referencing